From pastor to political activist

On a recent Sunday, about 30 worshipers packed the altar of Congregacion Leon de Juda in Roxbury, swaying to the contagious music of the choir and band as though they were at a rock concert. At least 100 sat in the congregation, singing along and smiling, while well-dressed women walked around with boxes of tissues to dab the eyes of the most emotional.

Pastor Roberto Miranda strode to the pulpit, one hand in his pinstripe suit, and preached to the rapt audience about the value of hard work, the strength one can derive from tragedy.

''God does not want to create parasites," he said.

In two decades, Leon de Juda, or Lion of Judah, a largely Hispanic evangelical Christian church, has grown from five members to 1,200, representing the rise of evangelical, Pentecostal congregations in a state long dominated by Catholics. With as many as 800 worshipers attending Sunday services, Leon de Juda also exemplifies the dramatic increase of Hispanics around Greater Boston.

But Miranda is not satisfied. He has written a master plan to ''reclaim the state of Massachusetts for Jesus Christ" and penetrate a culture he feels is being lost to promiscuity, activist judges, and the legalization of same-sex marriage. He is organizing Protestant ministers and Christian activists around the state and encouraging them to bring modern marketing techniques to the church.

The 17-page treatise appeals to evangelical leaders to work together to ''proceed systematically to penetrate and reconquer" institutions of culture, business, and politics in a state that he said has become ''saturated with a godless, secular outlook."

In May, 34 church leaders and Christian activists from Boston responded to his invitation and met in a small convent in Roxbury to discuss the plan. In September, the group will meet again to define its long-term goals.

''I called together these key leaders to talk about how could we put together an initiative to sell our product better, to be more relevant, and to communicate the message of the gospel in ways that would be a lot more digestible to the general public," Miranda said during in an interview in his spacious office overlooking Northampton Street.

He wrote the plan more than a year ago in the aftermath of the legalization of same-sex marriage. The vitriol he said he witnessed between both sides inspired him to draw up the plan, which calls on Christian leaders to unify and strengthen the church, recruit high school and college students, and imbue them with a ''clear, militant Christian worldview," and increase the influence of Christianity in the arts, media, and politics.

''I think that what Roberto is talking about is very much in the same vein of the civil rights movement; it's in keeping with the abolition movement," said the Rev. Ray Hammond, pastor at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, who attended the May meeting.

The language of Miranda's agenda is alarming, said Marc Solomon, political director of MassEquality, which advocates for gay marriage.

''I would say that beneath a gentle exterior is someone who holds truly extremist views about being gay," he said. ''His views are so out of the mainstream that they would be laughable if they weren't so hurtful toward gay people."

Miranda, a Princeton University graduate who received a doctorate in Romance languages at Harvard University, said that in order to penetrate the culture, evangelical leaders must think of the church as a corporation.

''Any institution that is going to be effective needs to be more communicative about the product it's trying to sell and find its market," he said. ''Right now the market is a 21st century, secularly oriented community that is skeptical of what kind of practical services the church can offer."

In his plan, he chides church leaders for being complacent and encourages them to act assertively. He also calls on church leaders to unify. ''Pastors must be continually informed and brought together for fellowship, prayer, and reflection," he wrote. ''Regional and state meetings of pastors must be organized on a regular basis."

Miranda, 50, was born in the Dominican Republic and has lived in the United States since he was 10. He wanted a career as a professor, but said he had to answer the calling to the ministry.

In 1984, he became a full-time pastor at the church, then called the Central Baptist Church, whose members were worshiping out of a brick building in a comfortable Cambridge neighborhood.

As the congregation grew, Miranda considered moving the church to the suburbs, where many members lived. Then, he said, he had a dream, in which enormous tarantulas were hovering over Boston.

''These tarantulas were representative of demonic beings exercising their harmful power over the city," he recalled. Above the spiders, however, was an enormous lion that he said was kind, intelligent, and prepared to fight the creatures.

He saw the dream as a sign, told his congregants they had to move to the city, and changed the church's name. In 1997, the church took over an abandoned building in Roxbury, gutted it, and renovated it for about $1 million. In 1999, Miranda developed the Higher Education Resource Center, a program designed to help young people, considered to be at risk, to get into college. President Bush mentioned the program, which receives about $30,000 in federal funding, during his speech at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in June.

Christian leaders praise Miranda as a visionary, a charismatic but humble preacher with the credibility to lead any social movement. And many in the congregation agree with their pastor that the church should be active.

''I think we need to stand up for whatever it is that we believe to be godly standards," said Erin McNally, 22, of Duxbury, who joined the church last year. ''Whatever the church believes to be godly standards, we should be trying to hold the state and politics accountable to that."

But the alliance Miranda has called together is still fragile. Members are getting to know each other. The group is trying to figure out what agenda it wants to push.

''We need to begin with the safe, nondivisive issues," he said. ''Youth is an area where we're all in agreement, youth in the inner city. It's a no-brainer."

Miranda won't sit quietly on gay marriage. He plans to visit Hispanic churches throughout the city to help collect signatures to put on the ballot a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He also wants more communication with those in the gay community, who he fears see him as a basher.

''It's not just a matter of 'I want to change you,' " he said. ''It's more a matter of wanting to expose them to a different perspective."

Hammond said Miranda's goals can appeal to the secular mainstream.

''I think that whenever people on the margins, whether they be evangelicals or blacks, start making some noise about having some wider impact, I think people always get a little nervous," he said. ''I would expect that whenever they hear that, what most people hear is the Christian Coalition [or] Pat Robertson asking someone to assassinate [Venezuelan president] Hugo Chavez, but I don't think that's what Roberto is talking about."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.